


Gods and Monsters

by ceedeeandco (Scedasticity)



Series: Inherit the Earth [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Supernatural AU: Croatoan/End'verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-02
Updated: 2013-03-08
Packaged: 2017-12-04 01:24:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/704887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scedasticity/pseuds/ceedeeandco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eve has no intention of doing all the clean-up work herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Resolutions from the Council of Surviving Gods and the Mother of Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> The next story will be back dealing with people readers actually care about, but the gods got very whiny and insisted on coming in to explain their role in all this.
> 
> For details about the cosmogony theory I'm running on here, see [Creation Myth](http://archiveofourown.org/works/617384/chapters/1113722).

**Resolutions from the Council of Surviving Gods and the Mother of Monsters, called Eve**  
 _August 2014_    


  1. The Participants recognize that while they may at times be in competition for resources, i.e. human lives and/or souls, they all share an interest in ensuring future availability of these resources.
  2. The Participants agree that the survival of humanity is in doubt thanks to the actions of the beings naming themselves angels, especially the one called Lightbringer or Lucifer.
    1. The angel Lucifer was directly responsible for the deaths, momentary or permanent, of many gods who sought to oppose him.
    2. No blame attaches to surviving gods for not directly opposing him.
  3. The gods applaud the Mother of Monsters for banishing Lucifer from the earth.
  4. The Participants recognize that the crisis has not passed.
    1. The humans continue to decrease in number.
    2. The warped souls called demons still roam the Earth in great numbers.
    3. The demonic plague called Croatoan still flourishes.
    4. Lucifer is banished but not destroyed, and will more than likely seek to return.
    5. The angels other than Lucifer left by choice and may return at any time.
  5. The Participants agree to collective action.
  6. Viable humans must be preserved.
    1. As much as possible, Eve's children will feed on animals or victims of the demon plague.
    2. Those who must feed on humans will as much as possible do so nonlethally.
    3. Those who can feed only by killing humans will confine themselves to the elderly and dying.
    4. Some kinds of Eve's children can survive only by killing humans; these kinds will limit their reproduction to that strictly necessary for species survival until such time as the crisis is past.
    5. Those kinds of Eve's children who reproduce by conversion of ordinary humans will limit their reproduction by rules to be discussed later.
    6. As much as possible, gods will seek sustenance from human worship, not human flesh.
    7. When worship alone is inadequate, gods will sustain themselves from human souls in situ, without damage to the humans.
    8. Gods accustomed to sustaining themselves on human flesh will retrain their appetites.
    9. If absolutely necessary, gods may solicit sacrifice of the elderly or dying from the human communities.
    10. Elderly and dying humans will be rationed if necessary.
    11. Humans actively dangerous to either the gods or to Eve's children ('Hunters') will be considered on a case-by-case basis.  If possible they will be preserved as humans in secure Reserves, but if necessary they may be converted.
  7. Human recovery must be encouraged.
    1. Eve's children will continue to maintain the safe-haven Reserves.
    2. The gods will offer human communities their protection and favor in exchange for worship, and will encourage reproduction.
    3. Self-sustaining human communities outside the protection of the gods or Eve will be allowed to flourish.
  8. The demon plague Croatoan must be eradicated.
    1. Eve has created the Croab to contain the infected and eradicate the infection.
    2. All gods will assist in transporting Croabs to any groups of infected humans.
    3. Gods of healing will examine infected humans cleansed by the Croabs and determine if any further recovery is possible.
  9. Demons must be driven from the Earth.
    1. Those gods skilled in the opening and closing of portals will find Hell Gates and seal them.
    2. When practical, demons should be destroyed rather than exorcised.
    3. All gods are encouraged to devise means of destroying demons, especially means which may be shared with Eve's children or with humans.
    4. Except in isolated cases of very powerful demons, exorcisms are acceptable to remove a demon from a living human host.
    5. Eve will create creatures with the ability to detect, draw out, and destroy demons.
  10. Returning angels must not find Earth undefended.
    1. As much as possible, angelic vessel lines will be identified and monitored for angelic interference.
    2. In some cases it may be desirable to convert the entire line, to render it useless to the angels.
    3. The gods will share what knowledge they have of the angelic vessel lines.
    4. Eve will create creatures with the ability to detect, draw out, and destroy angels.
    5. To this end, she asks that the gods deliver to her any angels, former angels, angelic grace, angelic weapons, former angelic vessels, or other creature or artifact they find bearing angelic traces.  





	2. A Sisterly Discussion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some very minor gods from a very has-been pantheon debate survival strategies.

_April 2013_

"I'm sorry, Clio, could you repeat that? Only it sounded like you just said you were going to gatecrash a _protogeneros_."

"You make it sound like I'm going to be sneaking into her party and drinking all her wine," Clio replied. "From what I've observed she's usually not even in the area, and even the monsters don't usually go inside the enclave."

"And what if she comes by and catches you?"

"Then I'll ask very nicely if I can stay. Everyone knows we're not flesh-eaters. As long as I don't stir up unrest -- and I have no intention of doing so -- there's no reason she wouldn't let me stay."

"In her children's _game preserve_."

"Look, Calliope, I'm happy for your sake that the Apocalypse is epic enough that every bit of idle gossip counts as paying honor to you, but that doesn't do _me_ any good, and oddly enough people convinced they're all about to die don't usually take the time to write down what's happening, far less study the past, far less try any more esoteric social sciences!"

"As opposed to astronomy? I don't see Urania suggesting shacking up with eldritch horrors."

"Don't bring me into this," Urania said, without looking up from the scroll in her hands. "I've been scraping by on improvised mechanical engineering."

"Is Calliope allowed to say 'shacking up'?" Thalia asked Melpomene in a clearly audible stage whisper. "I don't think she is."

Enough was enough. Euterpe clapped her hands. "Clio, sit down. Calliope, calm down. Thalia, Calliope can use whatever words she wants. Urania..." Actually, Urania must already be paying attention to things beside the scroll. "Never mind. We're all under a lot of stress, but shouting at each other isn't going to help."

Clio made a face, but sat down in the seat next to Urania and leaned her head on her shoulder.

She didn't look good. Since all of them abstained from human flesh, starvation had very little effect on bodies, but Clio looked washed out and exhausted and _flat_. Urania and Thalia weren't much better; Erato might actually be worse.

"Thank you. Calliope, what's your principle objection? Echidna or the monsters?"

"Does it _matter_?"

"Possibly," Melpomene said, before Euterpe could reply. _She_ looked healthy, at least. "We're supposed to stay away from _protogeneroi_ \-- other than Grandmother Gaea, of course -- for our own safety, because they're massively powerful and don't like being annoyed, and Echidna is still a _protogeneros_ at her core no matter how many incarnations she's been through. Going near Echidna is risky with respect to one's well-being."

"Yes, and--"

"That doesn't make it _morally wrong_." Melpomene held up a hand. "What is _arguably_ morally wrong is colluding with a goddess of monsters, monsters which prey on humans, when we are human deities."

Terpsichore cleared her throat. "Mostly human." Animals sang and danced, which was the only reason Euterpe and Terpsichore weren't just as badly off as Erato.

"Primordial muses excepted, the rest of us have been sustained by _human_ activity for millennia."

Calliope nodded. "And Echidna does not like humans."

"Echidna likes humans to eat," Thalia offered. "Not unlike many of our late relatives." (The only gods left these days knew how to hide. Subtlety had never been Olympus's strong point.)

Clio shook her head. "Echidna likes humans for her children to eat, now and in the future, which requires that there be more humans, unlike the Apocalypse, which appears to have the goal of no humans."

"So many wasted hymns," mourned a voice from the corner. Clio paused warily, but Polyhymnia didn't say anything else.

"You're acting like I'm going to strut in and try to get the werewolves to study their past. I'm not. I just want to sit in the library at that Reserve or game preserve or whatever you want to call it and encourage people to read the 900s."

"I think getting them to learn the Dewey Decimal System should count as history by itself," Thalia said. "There's a library? You're sure?"

Clio nodded. "The latest one is on a former university campus, and it includes the library, and I can feel the books are still there." She paused. "Technically I believe it would be encouraging people to read classes C, D, E, and F."

Euterpe and Terpsichore exchanged a look; Terpsichore shrugged minutely. They'd... become the oldest sisters sometime during the Roman Empire, when it had been decided that no matter what the Greeks' priorities were, dance and music had been around longer than epics, because they didn't require language. Calliope and Polyhymnia were next, because once people started talking they told stories about heroes and they told stories about gods, and then they put words with music, so Erato was in the middle. It took a while longer for people to turn an analytical eye on the world and their own past, sometimes until they had a _civilization_ , but it took a very particular _kind_ of civilization to divide entertainment into genres, so Urania and Clio were still ahead of Melpomene and Thalia.

Apollo had laughed at them for years over the reshuffling, but realigning themselves to humanity, and creative endeavors from any of humanity's cultures, had served them well -- better than their mightier kin, who were reduced to eating human flesh because they had no human respect, and endlessly reliving their glory days.

Because the world had changed, and they had adapted.

"All right," Euterpe said.

"All _right_? Euterpe?!"

"Take care of yourself, keep your head down, and don't antagonize the Mother of Monsters. We just want to do our jobs among the humans, there's no reason she'd object to that. See if the humans could be interested in poetry readings."

Clio looked at Erato, who didn't look up, and nodded. "I can do that."

"If she asks, tell her that if she wishes her children to have... creative patronage, some of your sisters might oblige."

" _Terpsichore_!"

Thalia raised her hand. "Can I vote against vampire poetry? I want to vote against vampire poetry."

Melpomene elbowed her. "You want to make a compilation of the worst of vampire poetry and release it in a book with a terrible pun in the title."

"Okay, yes, I want to do that too."

Calliope crossed her arms. "Maybe you're happy to go play with the monsters, but I'm not ready to give up on humans yet."

"Neither is Echidna, apparently, which I must admit makes me feel a little more hopeful about the situation."

"I think you've all lost your minds." Calliope shook her head, but she was giving in. "In you do start pimping us out to Echidna, Clio--"

"I don't think Calliope's allowed to say 'pimp', either."

"I really am planning on not running into Echidna--"

" _If_ you do, ask her if she would be open to her children composing and performing songs in praise of her."

"That... is a very good idea, Calliope." Euterpe looked at the corner, but Polyhymnia was too depressed to realize they were discussing her. "Working on a religion that delivers a desired result would really do her good, I hope."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Greek muses are: Calliope -- epic poetry; Polyhymnia -- religious poetry; Euterpe -- music; Terpsichore -- dance; Erato -- lyric poetry; Clio -- history; Urania -- astronomy; Melpomene -- tragedy; Thalia -- comedy.
> 
> They're calling Eve Echidna because that's the name she was using when the gods first tangled with her. Plus it's a Greek name, and they're biased.
> 
> I feel like I should apologize for letting the muses in, because whenever this imagining of them gets into my fic, they _will not shut up_. But I do feel that SPN has a severe deficit of sisters.


	3. Apocalypse Averted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kali attends a council and makes a judgement call.

As little as she liked the angelic-demonic Apocalypse -- and she did not like it at all -- Kali could not help but have an instinctive awareness of its progress. Most of the remaining powerful gods did, to some extent, but she was particularly in tune with destruction and could monitor it without effort -- had to expend more than a little effort _not_ to monitor it. She'd known the instant the angels decided things weren't going their way and fluttered off to let everyone else deal with their mess; she'd felt the shape of the destruction change. And she knew immediately when The End Of The World came to a sudden, screeching halt.

Hanuman wasn't so rude as to ask if she was sure, but he looked like he wanted to. "Has anyone told the demon plague?" he asked instead. "It looks about the same as it did yesterday."

"I'm not saying anything about the demon plague, or the demons, I'm saying the demons' Apocalypse has... paused."

"How does it do that without affecting the demons or the demon plague?"

"I'm not having this argument with you."

"You can't just say it's stopped when the most important parts of it are still going on."

She reminded herself firmly that Hanuman had been as active as possible among their remaining worshippers, and had seen demons and demon plague up close. "It did. That's all there is to it."

Which was when Matarisvan appeared. "There's a rumor that Lucifer is no longer on Earth. Kali--"

"That fits," Kali confirmed. "There might be other possible explanations. What's the source of the rumor?"

"I believe Sedna was involved somehow, so we're seeking independent confirmation." Matarisvan made a brief courtesy and vanished again.

Hanuman sighed. "I suppose I can see how that would stop the Apocalypse without stopping the apocalypse."

By sunrise, they had their confirmation. The Mother of Monsters had cast Lucifer from the planet -- at least for now. By the next sunset it was common knowledge that she was directing her children in an effort to save the human species, because her children _needed_ humans. By the next sunrise, word spread that the Mother of Monsters wished to address the gods as potential allies, and invited them to a council on the slopes of a volcano in Iceland.

"Oh, there's _no way_ this could go wrong," Krishna said.

Kali contemplated trying to shut him up, but decided he was too correct to argue with. The last council of gods had been a _catastrophe_ , and it had been partially her fault. She'd estimated Lucifer's power by... _Loki_ 's, and she'd been wrong; if she'd led the attack she wanted she would have gotten her followers killed.

She hadn't had a chance to, because Mercury decided it would be a good idea to invite Lucifer to the meeting and that was the end of _that_. (Kali was one of the very few to make it out of the meeting alive, and most of the others were minor gods who'd bolted the instant they realized Lucifer was on-site. Gods of destruction can be difficult to destroy, and Kali had had a functioning religion behind her at the time; she'd made it out of the slaughter, barely, and went back to India to regroup. They'd been fortunate the whole mess had been early enough in the apocalypse that it hadn't yet destabilized their worship base, and Ganesh and the other Hindu casualties had time to pull themselves together.) (If Mercury ever managed to pull himself together, she was going to make him regret it.)

Kali volunteered to go for their group, in case it _was_ a trap. Krishna volunteered to go along, in case someone was required to be charming rather than terrifying.

"Fine. But if he propositions the Mother of Monsters and she takes offense, I am not going to rescue him," Kali informed the assembly.

* * *

Five minutes after they arrived, Krishna was charmingly sharing his cloak with a minor Polynesian goddess who was not dressed for the local weather and Kali was wondering if it would cause a problem if she annihilated Tlaloc before the Mother of Monsters arrived. Probably. He seemed to be the most prominent Aztec representative present, although she was fairly sure Tezcatlipoca was alive somewhere. But his nostalgic reminiscing about the good old days of regular sacrifice was drawing an audience of young, gullible petty gods, and the last thing they needed was little fools _further_ reducing the human population.

A Haitian snake goddess broke the cluster up before Kali had to step in. Just as well. The older Western Hemisphere gods could get _very_ touchy about "old world" interference.

Like the Hindu pantheon, the contingent from Japan had sent representatives -- apparently also aiming for the terrifying/charming combination with Susanowa and Uzume. The highest-power Greeks present were Hestia and Persephone, but all nine muses were clustered together near the front and Eros was sulking near the back. (Getting Hestia out in public was impressive, but perhaps she felt obligated with the others gone.) All the remaining Aesir had gone out in one last suicidal attack on Lucifer; there were a few Vanir exchanging frosty greetings with some Celts. Four different raven-gods were arguing with Coyote. More Egyptians than she would have expected, and a scattering of Sumerians -- some of the old gods had very impressive staying power. Isis… was seated next to Cybele. That combination bore watching.

And there was the Mother of Monsters, appearing very suddenly in the middle of the group. She'd either teleported or suddenly dropped a perception shield.

Kali hadn't seen her in person since she'd been calling herself Hariti and stealing children to turn into rakshasas. Hariti had been physically imposing, tall enough to look Vishnu in the eye when he ordered her to back off _their_ humans. She'd asked what he planned to do if she didn't. Vishnu had signaled Kali, Shiva, and Agni, who was wielding some phoenix bones. Hariti had conceded the field and gone to terrorize some other region.

This new incarnation was small and unimpressively pallid, but the _weight_ of a Firstborn-incarnated was all there.

"Cousins," said the Mother of Monsters. "I'm glad so many of you were able to come. I am called Eve. We have much to discuss."

* * *

Eve was very polite, but it boiled down to saying she had a plan for finishing off the Apocalypse and restoring the humans, and she expected all of them to cooperate. First, human flesh was _off the menu_ until further notice.

It took several hours to get the younger gods calmed down enough to continue the council. Most of them had never known anything but flesh-eating, and most of them seemed to think it was the only possible way to live. (Understandable, as even most of the older pantheons had taken it up. The Indian pantheon generally indulged only socially and on special occasions; the flesh was delicious, but it was also habit-forming.)

A Central African smith-god -- Funzi, she thought -- finally shouted them down. "Do you think we devoured a human a week when we were your age? Presiding over a village of three hundred people? We got by because we found a place in their world and filled it. It's been harder to do that lately, especially in some parts of the world, but you can do it even now with enough effort."

Not that it really mattered. Eve wasn't going to give in.

The council concluded with a lengthy list of resolutions and an immediate proliferation of _committees_. Krishna contrived to get himself on the repopulation committee. Kali decided it was time to return to India and report. But she had to do one more thing.

She approached the Mother of Monsters. "A word."

Eve -- and that name had to have been chosen out of spite or irony -- nodded. "Yes?"

"As of several years ago -- at the time of the slaughter of the gods -- the archangel called Gabriel was on Earth, in hiding, posing as the pagan god Loki. He went deeper into hiding after that, but I never heard he died."

"How... very interesting." Eve smiled. "Thank you for the information, goddess. May you journey safely to your home."

Kali allowed the dismissal to stand only because she wanted to get the bad taste out of her throat. He'd lied to her about everything, and she'd tried to kill him once already, but it still tasted like betrayal. Maybe it was because she didn't know what precisely Eve intended to _do_ with "reservoirs of angelic power". Maybe it was because they'd lost so many people already. She'd caught herself missing Mithras, which she would _not_ have predicted. Maybe she wasn't as angry as she'd thought.

It didn't matter. She had her priorities. Fending off hostile angels had to come ahead of protecting one she'd once thought she knew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New Mythological Characters:
> 
> [Hanuman](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/hanuman.html); [Krishna](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/k/krishna.html); [Matarisvan](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/matarisvan.html); [Agni](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/agni.html); [Shiva](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/shiva.html); [Vishnu](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/v/vishnu.html)
> 
> [Sedna](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/sedna.html)
> 
> [Tlaloc](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/tlaloc.html); [Tezcatlipoca](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/tezcatlipoca.html)
> 
> [Haitian snake goddess](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/ayida-weddo.html)
> 
> [Susanowa](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/susanowa.html); [Uzume](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/u/uzume.html)
> 
> [Hestia](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/hestia.html); [Persephone](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/persephone.html); [Eros](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/eros.html)
> 
> [Aesir](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/aesir.html); [Vanir](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/v/vanir.html)
> 
> [Coyote](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/coyote.html); [Raven](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/r/raven.html)
> 
> [Hariti](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/k/kishimo-jin.html)   
> [Cybele](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/i/isis.html>Isis</a>%0A<a%20href=)   
> [Funzi](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/f/funzi.html)   
> [Mithras](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/mithra.html)


	4. Priorities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More strategizing from the Muses, and a brief meeting with a fugitive tragicomedy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be on the safe side: This chapter contains vague discussion of mythology-typical sexual violence.

Everyone was talking at once. Thalia didn't think she'd seen such a large, energetic, _hopeful_ bunch of gods since Roman times. Most of her sisters looked pretty happy, too -- Calliope had really come around to the working-with-or-for-Echidna thing, and Polyhymnia was _much_ more stable than she'd been since angels tried to end the world. There had been an incident in 2012 involving teleporting into a choir loft and interrupting a mass with barely-coherent ranting about the pointlessness of praying to a missing god and sociopathic angels. It had been kept out of the media, somehow. Terpsichore had been forced to retrieve Polyhymnia from a police station, still ranting.

Speaking of ranting, one of the committees had suddenly gotten particularly loud. "What was that?"

Erato rolled her eyes. "I think Veritas just got kicked off the internet committee."

"Why was Veritas _on_ the internet committee?"

Clio snickered. "Wishful thinking on someone's part? So anyway, I'm wondering if I should volunteer for the repopulation committee."

Thalia stared. "Why on Earth would you? You don't know a thing about babies or sex. Uh, I mean you don't have any special expertise about sex."

"Nice save. That's true, but I covered all the social sciences, so I _do_ have some special expertise in gender studies. Compared to everyone else, anyway."

Urania winced. "Clio, that would be a disaster."

"I _know_ it would, but did you see some of the gods lining up? Eros is bad enough, but I saw Pan. His idea of a fertility rite includes what would generally be considered sexual assault."

(In the old days, Apollo had decreed them off-limits -- at least to Pan. More recently they'd had to fend for themselves. Euterpe had made some very inventive threats involving lyre strings, but the real deterrent was probably the fortnight he had spent completely unable to dance, carry a tune by voice or instrument, or maintain any kind of rhythm in any way.)

"It's not _just_ Pan," Urania said, but she sounded doubtful.

"Well, yeah, at least ones like Freyja will make sure everyone enjoys themselves in the process, but what if they don't _want_ all orgies and babies all the time? It's cruel to throw modern civilized humans into that. Not to mention certain gods who probably think the best way to repopulate is for them to personally seduce every--"

"Leave it," Terpsichore said firmly. "If you argue from a modern human perspective no one will pay any attention to you."

"I feel like I should at least try."

"Something acceptable to modern sensibilities is not going to happen. Something a little fairer to the women involved -- Cybele's on that committee. I'm not sure she thinks men have any business _thinking_ about reproduction. Certainly the only people who get to make executive decisions are mothers, goddesses, and especially mother goddesses. She'll keep this from turning into... into..."

"PhallusPhest '14?" Thalia suggested.

"Thank you, Thalia." Terpsichore paused. "My mistake, I meant _never say that again_."

Clio looked at Calliope. "Epically speaking. Does Cybele have this under control?"

"She has one of the closest ties to Gaea of any of us, she's the Magna Mater, no one has even nominal authority over her... and she's talking to Isis. And Eileithyia. And -- is that Harmonia? Yes, I would say they have this under control."

"...Good. I think we can leave it to them. Which means Urania and I should probably get over to the internet committee. I had no idea so many monsters were so fond of web surfing."

Thalia waved them off, then turned to Euterpe. "Can I hang around the repopulation committee to see if Cybele gelds Pan? I think it's a real possibility."

"No you may not."

"Fine. I'm going to Australia." She gave Melpomene a significant look, and departed.

* * *

Some gods could hop around the world as they pleased; others were limited to more pedestrian forms of transportation. (Sometimes literally; there was one god in Africa who could disable any other method of transportation by attempting to board it.) The muses were somewhere in the middle. They _could_ teleport, if it was to a nexus of their own power or a known location where they had previously set a beacon. They could usually get into the general vicinity of wherever they wanted to go, assuming they didn't want to go anywhere untouched by humans.

Thalia blinked from Iceland to the ampitheater at Epidaurus, then to a functioning comedy club/drown-your-sorrows bar in Kalgoorlie, Australia. She stood in the back for a few minutes, watching the routine -- not terrible but could be better; she'd try to remember to track the guy down later for some inspiration -- and then shifted to an abandoned opera house in northern Italy.

She paused there in the middle of the stage, avoiding the holes, and looked for humans, infected or otherwise; nothing. Also no demons, gods, or monsters, unless they were stronger than her (entirely possible) and deliberately concealing themselves (hopefully unlikely). Thalia dropped her shield of _nothing-to-see-here_ and picked her way backstage. It looked like someone human had been camping in the laundry room for a while, but they were gone. Hopefully not violently. "You still here?" she called softly. "Uh, if you are here and don't want to talk to me, you should know you should probably move. Soon."

Someone stronger than her dropped a perception shield. "Planning on renovating? Bulldozing for new development?" asked the Trickster -- Loki -- _Gabriel_.

(They were absolutely not supposed to go anywhere near angels, which was why Calliope had been wistfully watching the epic Apocalypse from afar. They were _strongly_ advised to stay away from foreign chaos gods, especially those with malevolent reputations. But she'd met him as a very convincing run-of-the-mill Trickster godling, and he'd been _funny_. Sometimes in a nasty and permanent way, so Mel found him productive, too. When it had come out that he had secretly been an archangel the whole time... They couldn't criticize someone for changing with the times and circumstances. So they'd discreetly shared a few bolt-holes and neglected to tell Euterpe or Terpsichore of the acquaintance.)

"Not that I know of. The word is your -- brother is gone from Earth?"

"Coupla days now," he replied nonchalantly. "I would've taken a closer look, but there seems to be an excess of chthonic monster-goddess in the area."

"Yes. Echidna -- Eve, she's calling herself Eve this time -- the Mother of Monsters. Doesn't like the Apocalypse because her children were getting hungry, and uncomfortable, and... so on."

"I see."

"She has this whole big plan-- I don't know, I'm no strategist, but most of the gods think it's good, or at least the best one out there. She wants the gods to help with human recovery and demon clean-up... and also restoring some basic creature comforts which some of the monsters apparently really miss, which is really funny, but the point I'm trying to get at is she says she expects Lucifer to try to come back for sure, and possibly the rest of the angels, too, and she's taking steps to prepare for that by creating monsters which can hunt angels."

He snorted. "The nice thing about Tiamat's angel-eating monsters is you tend to see them coming from a long way away. Thank you for the concern, but--"

"I'm not done. In order to create monsters that can hunt angels, she says she needs sources of angelic power, so she's asking the gods to deliver any angel weapons, angel grace, former angelic vessels, possible angelic artifacts, locations of angel _deaths_ , and anything else we know of that has even a chance of containing any angelic power. I am guessing an angel qualifies."

"...Ah."

"No one said anything about you to the whole council, but enough people know that _someone_ will tell Echidna. I haven't volunteered any information and I don't plan to -- neither does Mel -- but if someone asks us, we won't lie."

"Et tu, Thalia?"

"That story is Melpomene's -- or arguably Clio's, but she says she doesn't want it. And I'm sorry, I am, but we need to stay in Echidna's good graces right now. Even I can't live off gallows humor forever, and some of the others--"

"I get it, I get it." He shook his head. "It's fine. With Lucifer gone for the moment I have other options anyway. Thank you for helping when I needed it, and best of luck in the future."

"You--" He was gone. Angels were some of the best at teleporting.

Thalia carefully reconstructed her perception shield and blinked back to Kalgoorlie. She could still use a good recharge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mythological characters:
> 
> [Pan](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/pan.html); [Eileithyia](http://www.pantheon.org/articles/e/eileithyia.html)... I take it back, that's a terrible article, try this one [Eileithyia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileithyia); Harmonia refers to the patron of the SPN Amazons, not the mythological one


	5. Announcement!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flier posted in the North Central Reserve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for this extremely short chapter.

_September 2014_

ANNOUNCEMENT

THE INTERNET IS BACK!

PRAISE THE GODS!

With a computer or portable device, you can now connect to the internet! (A Reserve Intranet connection is not required, but it will speed up your connection.) Simply pray to our local patron, Thialfi, for connection. At peak hours, consider an offering of food or wine. The gods look kindly on genuine devotion and prayers from the heart!

We can already connect to servers in the other North American reserves and some functioning local networks in Europe, India, Australia, and China! We expect others to follow. If you are looking for a particular website which seems to no longer be in existence, you can pray for its return! The gods Persephone and Thoth are in charge of Dead Page requests from our region.

Note: "Social media" sites will require extra attention and are not yet available. The launch of SurvivorBook is planned for the middle of next year!

Sign up now to get a Reserve email address!


	6. Prototype

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eve unveils a prototype.

_November 2014_

Clio and Urania could have popped right into Yellowstone -- somewhere in the park, anyway. Sadly, they were unavailable. Some humans in Europe had decided of their own volition to establish a "thank the Internet Gods!" holy day, and there were probably outages and slowdowns all over the rest of the world as the entire internet committee showed up to bask. Euterpe and Terpsichore could probably have managed the jump at some times of the year, but not so much in winter. Calliope and Erato were stuck teleporting into the closest city with an intact library and convincing someone to give them a ride the rest of the way. Fortunately, some of the monsters there were delivering supplies to Yellowstone. Also fortunately, they seemed mostly friendly.

"You're muses, right?" a djinn asked. "All right, you can ride along if you tell the whole story about teaching sirens to sing."

Erato winced. "I'm not sure if that's Thalia's area or Melpomene's -- but all right."

It was actually pretty definitely Thalia's area. Polyhymnia had somehow convinced the Alpha Siren that sirens were the perfect choice to sing glorious songs of praise to the Mother of Monsters. Polyhymnia had then discovered that despite all myths to the contrary, sirens had no natural talent for singing unless they were pursuing a human who was only interested in a good singer. Moreover, they could not tell the difference between good singing, mediocre singing, and ear-bleedingly awful singing.

"They seem really sincere, so she's still working with them. But I wouldn't advise accepting any concert invitations for, uh, some time yet. Years."

Once in the park, it was a relatively short walk along a mostly cleared trail to the site of Echidna's announced update on anti-angel defenses. There were nowhere near as many gods as the last council (even after accounting for the internet committee), but there were enough for a couple of muses to disappear into the crowd.

Echidna emerged from the visitors' center. "Thank you for coming," she said. "Many of you have expressed curiosity about our plans to deal with returning angels. The first part of the plan is, of course, control of the vessel lines; I know the vessel lines committee has been very busy. But we will also need ways to root out angels who successfully returned. Towards that end, I have prepared this prototype." She gestured.

The creature that crawled out the double doors looked more like the classical image of a dragon than Echidna's dragons did: vaguely reptilian, four legs, claws, wings, tail, and large. It was crouching, belly to the ground, and its shoulder was still even with Echidna's chin. Guessing distances was not Erato's strong point, but it had to be at least three meters long, plus the tail. The wings were too tightly furled to judge, but if it was flight-capable, they had to be huge.

"Huh," Calliope said, very quietly.

"This," Echidna said, "is my newest child. It can scent out angels and angelic power, its tail-spike can serve as an angel-sword, and in theory it can force a weaker angel out of a vessel with only minor damage to the vessel -- we have not been able to test this yet, of course. Since there is not presently an angel problem, it is made so it can also track, draw out, and devour demons. It has flexible dietary requirements to survive. It's a bimorph, and its other form is mostly humanoid and can reproduce sexually with humans or my other children."

The not-a-dragon looked vaguely mortified.

"All offspring will be of its kind, but unless it has excess angelic power stored the offspring will not have those abilities, so we're not attempting breeding yet."

Yes, that was definitely a look of mortification.

"I will create more of these, and set them to hunting demons and keeping watch for angels. I plan to make at least ten, but probably no more than a hundred."

"Can it hurt gods?" Tezcatlipoca asked ( _now_ he showed up).

Echidna smiled. "It's large, physically strong, and has the same intellectual and rational capabilities as a human. But no, it has no special abilities aimed at gods."

Cybele spoke. "I assume it is not invulnerable?"

"No, but I am not disclosing its vulnerabilities at this time."

"What's it called?"

"To be decided. I will accept suggestions."

Calliope leaned in close to whisper in Erato's ear. "Unless I have lost my mind, which is entirely possible, that _particular_ one is called Samuel Winchester."

"...Seriously?"

"I haven't sensed him from this close in years, not since angels came on the scene -- but I think so."

"...Huh."


End file.
